In his 1781 book General History of Connecticut, the Reverend Samuel Peters (1735–1826) used the phrase to describe various laws - first enacted by Puritan colonies in the 17th century - that prohibited various activities, recreational as well as commercial, on Sunday (Saturday evening through Sunday night).
Some were struck down by provincial courts, but most were simply abrogated, often due to competitive reasons where out-of-province or foreign merchants were open. ==Cook Islands, Tonga and Niue== In the Cook Islands, blue laws were the first written legislation, enacted by the London Missionary Society in 1827, with the consent of ariki (chiefs).
Beginning in the 1840s, workers, Jews, Seventh Day Baptists, freethinkers, and other groups began to organize opposition.
In 1896, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Johnson Field, opined with regard to Sunday blue laws: Many states prohibit selling alcohol for on and off-premises sales in one form or another on Sundays at some restricted time, under the idea that people should be in church on Sunday morning, or at least not drinking. Another feature of blue laws in the United States restricts the purchase of particular items on Sundays.
For example, the Lord's Day Alliance supported the United States Congress in securing "a day of rest for city postal clerks whose hours of labor, unlike those of city mail carriers, were largely unregulated." In Canada, the Ligue du Dimanche, a Roman Catholic Sunday league, supported the Lord's Day Act in 1923 and promoted first-day Sabbatarian legislation.
In a unanimous 6–0 decision, the Lord's Day Act was ruled an infringement of the freedom of conscience and religion defined in section 2(a) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A Toronto referendum in 1950 allowed only team sports to be played professionally on Sunday.
Theatre performances, movie screenings, and horse racing were not permitted until the 1960s. The Supreme Court later concluded, in R.
That this day coincides with Christian Sabbath is not a bar to the state's secular goals; it neither reduces its effectiveness for secular purposes nor prevents adherents of other religions from observing their own holy days. McGowan was but one of four Sunday closing cases decided together by the Court in May 1961.
This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter, but not to small shops (those with an area of below 280 square metres). ==Northern Ireland== Prior to 2008, no football was permitted to be played on Sundays by clubs affiliated to the Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland. Shops with a floor area of over may only open from 1 to 6pm on Sundays. In Belfast, public playgrounds were closed on Sundays until 1965.
Though most of these laws have been relaxed or repealed in most states, they are still enforced in some other states. In Texas, for example, blue laws prohibited selling housewares such as pots, pans, and washing machines on Sunday until 1985.
Exempt are bakeries, DIYs, garden centres, gas stations and smaller supermarkets. ==England and Wales== ===Before 1994=== Prior to 1994, trading laws forbade sale of certain products on a Sunday; the distinction between those that could and could not be sold was increasingly seen as arbitrary, and the laws were inadequately enforced and widely flouted.
For example, some supermarkets would treat the relatively modest fines arising as a business cost and open nonetheless. ===Since 1994=== The Sunday Trading Act 1994 relaxed restrictions on Sunday trading.
Similar laws formerly applied to cinemas, pubs and parks. ==Poland== Since 2007, blue laws were enacted and resulted in stores closing on the 13 state holidays in Poland - these are both religious and secular days of rest.
This applies even to garden centres, which earlier had been trading over Easter, but not to small shops (those with an area of below 280 square metres). ==Northern Ireland== Prior to 2008, no football was permitted to be played on Sundays by clubs affiliated to the Irish Football Association in Northern Ireland. Shops with a floor area of over may only open from 1 to 6pm on Sundays. In Belfast, public playgrounds were closed on Sundays until 1965.
In Niue, certain activities remain forbidden on Sunday, reflecting the country's history of observing Christian Sabbath tradition. ==Denmark== In Denmark the closing laws restricting retail trade on Sundays have been abolished with effect from October 1, 2012.
All text is taken from Wikipedia. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License .
Page generated on 2021-08-05